What We've Been Cooking...

    So I haven't blogged in forever, mostly because I haven't been making much since my kitchen has been under construction.  I am happy to annouce that the kitchen project is moving along quite nicely.  My dad and Arnauld worked all day today installing cabinets.  We should be up and running again soon!
     But just because I haven't been cooking any fun new recipes doesn't mean that I have been sitting around doing nothing.  Instead of food, I have been cooking up a baby girl!  Arnauld and I are so excited for our new baby to join our little family sometimethissummer.  The rest of our family is also anxious for the new arrival.  They havebeen planning a pretty pink baby shower for the last few weeks.  What better occassion to get back into the kitchen, in this case- my mom's, and bake some sweet treats?  This dessert was a combined effort on so many parts.  Jaxson helped to crack the eggs.  We were all amazed that he could do it and with only one tiny speck of shell in the bowl.  Ace is really good at measuring and mixing in ingredients.  My mom, sister, and I then worked on the assembly of these cupcake jars, an idea my sister came up with for party favors.  Let's just say that there was quite a bit of laughter as we put these together and a few suggestions to scrap the whole idea and buy candy to fill the jars with instead.  In the end, we celebrated our imperfect creations and only hope that our guests do the same.

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes
recipe from thecakeblog.com
Makes 24 cupcakes or 16 cupcakes in a jar

Cake Ingredients
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
3 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup lemonade mix (Country Time)
1 cup milk
3 tbsp lemon zest
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla

Method
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
1. Mix together flour, baking powder, salt, lemonade mix, and lemon zest and set aside.
2. In a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until well combined.
3. Add the eggs and beat.
4. Add lemon juice and vanilla and mix.
5. Gradually add the dry ingredients and milk, alternating.  Begin and end with the dry ingredients.
6. Fill lined cupcake tins until 2/3 full.
7. Bake for 20 minutes or until a tookpick comes out clean.
8. Let cook for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack.

Strawberry Lemon Frosting

Ingredients
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
4 cups of confectioner's sugar
3 tbsp pureed strawberries (3-4 strawberries)
1 tsp lemon zest

Method
1. In a stand mixer, cream butter for 1-2 minutes.
2. Slowly add the sugar.
3. Mix in the strawberry puree and lemon zest.
4. Ice cupcakes.